Monday (February 6)

More good news! Silas is doing great. He has continued to improve since his move to the yellow nicu. He has went down from 4 ml air flow to 2 ml air flow on his high humidity nasal cannula. This is huge! Last week he was on 5 ml. He is slowly coming off of that altogether. When it is gone completely (hopefully by the end of the week) he can a.) be moved to a real crib, b.) start wearing clothes, and c.) start bottle and breastfeeding. Yay!!!!

Also, he is off of the continuous feedings through his feeding tube. They are now feeding him every two hours through the feeding tube. Next, they will work up to every three hours for feedings. This will get him ready and on a schedule for his bottle/breast feedings.

All of these things add up to a very exciting week ahead for Silas. He will have some things to adjust to but the nurse today said that he is doing so well that it wouldn't surprise her if he was in a crib, wearing clothes, and taking a bottle by the end of the week.

I held him for a long time this afternoon. We visited. He nuzzled at my breast. (He's a natural, I tell ya.) He fell asleep. I watched Midnight in Paris starring Owen Wilson on my Kindle while he slept. We had a great time.

And then he went back to his bed, I talked to the nurse, and then I pumped more milk. The whole afternoon flew by and I realized that it was past supper time. So, I headed downstairs to eat. He is on a schedule where he gets his bath and "hands on" time at 8:30. I made it back upstairs before 8:00 (I got caught up watching The Voice while I was in the cafeteria). There had been a shift change and the new night nurse had a lot to do tonight so she already had his bath and care times done while I was at supper. I was majorally bummed! I love helping with his bath! He was already back in bed and swaddled in a sound sleep when I got back. I wasn't gone that long! Anyway, he weighed 3 pounds, 10 ounces tonight. And, guess what? He grew another inch this week! That is an inch a week for the past three weeks! He is now 17 1/4 inches long! Praise God for answered prayers because our boy is really growing now!

Other fun things about today: I discovered the best hot chocolate ever at the coffee shop downstairs. Yum. I was brave and turned the cafeteria tv to something other than ESPN. I'm not sure if that's ever been done before. And, I listened to Harry Potter on the audiobook all the way to St. Louis today and let me just say, that it was awesome!

Oh, and P.S. The Yellow Nicu is where all of the crying babies are. Wowza! You can tell these babies have good lungs.

Movin' On Up... To The Sky? No! To The Yellow Nicu!!

They moved Silas today (February 2) to the Yellow Nicu! This might not sound like a big deal but it is!!! He has been in the green nicu, which is the acute nicu. The yellow is for "feeders and growers." It is a big step in the right direction. And I am one happy mama. The yellow nicu is located just down the hall on the same floor as where he has been but it has been a "place of mystery" for me because I have never actually been there. It has always seemed so far off and not really in our reality. Our reality has been in the green nicu with the respiratory therapists and ventilators. I think that is finally in our past though. Since I am not in St. Louis today, the nurse told me over the phone all about the move and how it is a nice big room with a... wait for it... a window!! There are no rooms with windows in the green nicu. This is very exciting for me because I usually feel pretty cut off from the outside world while I am staying in the room with Silas. It should also help with cell phone signals. But the important thing is that Silas is now considered a "grower!"

And the other exciting news tonight is that he now weighs three and a half pounds! Yep, that's right. 3 pounds, 8.6 ounces!!!! The nurse weighed him three times she said because she was surprised by such a big jump in numbers. I just can't believe how fast we're flying through the whole three pound range. It seemed like it took forever just to get him back up to two pounds. And then hoping for three pounds felt like so far away. And now four pounds feels like it is within reach. The nurse said that they will probably start trying to feed him by bottle in about two weeks (usually around 34 weeks, he is considered a 32 weeker right now). Exciting stuff, let me tell ya!

Okay, in other big news, my Harry Potter audio books have arrived at the library. For those of you who know me, you know that I love me some Harry Potter. I have read all of the books but since I have been in the car so much I decided that I should listen to them on audio. I think the sound effects and voices will be awesome! I have xm radio in the car but I am even burnt out on that. My country stations play the same ol' songs over and over. There are about ten country songs that I have heard waaayy too many times. So lately I have switched over to the 80s on 8, the 90s on 9, and the 70s on 7. They don't play near enough Meatloaf, Guns n Roses, or Paul Simon for me. They do play way too much Genesis and Phil Collins, which are basically the same thing but I think the station thinks that we want both. We don't. Trust me. We don't. Maleah broke my Meatloaf cd and my New Kids on the Block cd is already boring me. I just can't listen to Hangin' Tough as many times a day as I used to. I know, it's sad, isn't it? Anyway, I had to do something differently and so that brought me to audio books. Interestingly enough, xm has an audiobook channel, but here is the weird/frustrating thing about it. They only read an excerpt of a book, not the whole thing. It really leaves ya hangin'. Half the time, I don't even know the title of the book being read so if I'm really interested to see how it ends, I can't even find the book at the library. I don't get why they do that. Anyway, I am really psyched about the Harry Potter audiobooks. I'll let you know if I like them as much as I think I will...

All in all, it has been a great day for the Coopers! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings...

Thursday (February 2)

I am so happy February is here! Yay! We made it through December and January. Spring is right around the corner and that means we are getting closer to bringing Silas home. Double yay!

He now weighs 3 pounds, 6.8 ounces. He is really growing now! They have went up on his feedings again too. So that means probably even more weight gain. He is now getting 10 ml/hour continuously through the feeding tube.

I left St. Louis yesterday to come home for a couple of days. I held him for a long time before I left. The physical therapist came in and worked with me on massaging and stretching his little legs. He really liked that. He became super relaxed and fell asleep. Before we did the massage, we got to do some "practice" breastfeeding. I had to pump all of my milk out before we practiced though. Surprisingly, he latched right on and acted like he knew exactly what he was supposed to do. I was super impressed. He was so alert. It was a great bonding experience. I really hope I can breastfeed him eventually.

That's really about it for today. Keep prayin' for him because it is working!! God is good!